Shadows of the Past
by MC Supernova
Summary: An all OC story about a boy whose father left home to fulfill an obligation to an evil organization. But there's a twist! Read on to find out. NOTE: This has nothing to do with any preexisting evil organization (e.g. Team Rocket, Galactic, etc.)
1. Prologue: The Message

The message played over and over in his mind. It almost felt like he was dreaming, floating around in his own mind. Maybe, he'd traipse near his temporal lobes. He could parade past his pituitary gland and maybe even canter casually around his cerebrum. The feeling that he was in a dream was so strong, he thought he would just snap back into reality in his own bed in his own room at any minute. But for now, he was okay with this.

He began to think of home. Cedric was an only child. His mother was going through a deep depression after his father left to live at wherever he worked. That reminded him, the video had mentioned his dad… whatever… He witnessed his dad leave, but he was only five years old then, a third of his current age. He couldn't remember any details about the fight, but there was a lot of yelling, something about a job. His mom insisted that his dad should stay and take care of his son, but his dad said otherwise. He said something about taking care of his son by going. This didn't really make sense to him, but it didn't matter now.

He supposed that his family was pretty poor. His dad wasn't sending any money and his mom barely worked enough to put food on the table. It didn't matter too much to him anyways. No one else in town gave him any crap because everyone knew what was going on in his home. Everyone knew his dad left. Everyone knew his mom was depressed. Everyone knew they were poor. Everyone in town ignored him as well. They just didn't know how to possibly start talking to the most unfortunate kid in town.

Cedric didn't care much about that at all, or at least that's what he told himself. He just said he didn't care about anything to try to hide his true feelings from himself. In truth, he cared so much about what people had to say. He wanted to have a normal conversation with someone for once. He had cried himself to sleep on most occasions the first three years after his dad left.

There was a sudden jerk around him as he snapped out of his trance. He slid across a dull metal floor and hit his head on something else that was metallic, then something cardboard. He quickly looked around. He wasn't in his bed. He wasn't in his room. He was in the back of a moving van.

_Oh… right… moving. I guess we're there._ After he told his mom about the video message, she became a little anxious. For once Cedric got what he had wished for so many times over the past ten years. She was no longer depressed, but it still wasn't her. She was still a different person, and he supposed that she wouldn't ever be like how she was a decade ago. She had told him to pack up his things and that she would get a moving truck to come for the stuff tomorrow. And here he was now, in the back of that moving truck with all of their crap, some of which had toppled over on top of him. Open boxes and clothes lay scattered around him. He decided he wasn't going to like this place. Then, the door slid open, blinding him with the sudden change of lighting.


	2. The Twist

Once his eyes readjusted, he saw trees and grass hanging from the sky and an open, blue void below him, and then he remembered he was still on his back under the pile of junk on the cold, hard metal surface in the rear of the truck. He felt a little silly for even thinking the world was really like that for a second. He warily crawled out of the moving truck and landed on his feet. Once he got used to using his legs again, he took a better look around at his surroundings. There wasn't much. There were only three or four other houses and there was another rather large building that looked like some sort of a warehouse. It was a little too open for Cedric. He wanted to get inside as soon as possible… and talk to his mom about this whole mess.

Once ushered in by his mother, he demanded answers. She kept walking and sat at a table. He paced back and forth across the living room, occasionally glancing at his mother. He finally uttered, "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know damn well what I mean!" he shouted at her. "Why did we move? Why haven't you talked to me since dad left?" He was now fighting back tears, "W-Where's dad?" He finished shakily, unsure of how she would respond.

"I'll tell you everything," She plainly replied, "but first you should unpack. Then we can talk over dinner."

After he put all of his boxes in his room and unpacked some of the boxes, he got bored and hustled downstairs to confront his mom once again. Surprisingly, she was waiting for him with some macaroni and cheese at the table. She never made mac 'n' cheese since dad left his dad left. _What's up with her? Maybe…?_

He was right about to sit down and inhale the bowl as fast as he could, but he stopped himself. He was here to talk, not to eat.

"So, what's going on here?" he asked. He was still standing awkwardly away from the table.

"Sit down and eat." She motioned to the chair across from her.

He kept his eyes on her as he cautiously sat down, as if he was scared she would go back to being depressed again if he turned away. He tasted and spoonful of the mac 'n' cheese. Oh, how he had missed the taste of the sacred pasta.

"Well, I'll start with when Arnold left."

He put down his spoon upon hearing his dad's name and looked directly into his mother's eyes.

"Why? Why did he leave?"

"Let me talk. You eat." She sternly stared at him until he complied. "So, he didn't want to leave. He owed these… people… money, but he couldn't get enough money together, so he went to work for them to pay it off."

"Who are these, people?"

"I'll get to that," she snapped back, a little too viciously. The retelling of this story was taking a toll on her. She continued, "So he had to go no matter what. I didn't want him to go. I thought we could move to another region, but Arnold insisted it wouldn't make a difference. So he left," she finished. She added, making sure eye contact was established, "I'm sorry he left, and I'm sorry I wasn't there for you either. I just couldn't…" She began to cry, not just because of her own emotions, but because now Cedric was crying. "One more thing, why we're here…" She paused, wiping away her tears,"…You were a part of the deal that was made between your father and those men."

"Wait, what?"

"When your father made the deal to work off the debt, they said he wouldn't be able to pay it off before he died, so they blackmailed him into agreeing to force you to work for them as soon as you were old enough, and here we are…"

"How could he?" Cedric heard his mouth ask. He found his body standing up, and his fists slamming into the hard, wood table. He paced back and forth across the room mumbling in an inaudible tone. This was his way of processing all the new information. Pacing and mumbling like this was how he coped with problematic situations because he had no parents to talk to, even about the simplest of things.

"I'm not finished."

"Oh, sorry mom," he apologized, adding, "I got a little carried away there, but…" he trailed off.

"Two years ago, Arnold… he sent something in the mail." She got up now, moving towards a box that Cedric hadn't seen earlier in the kitchen. "I don't even know what it is… there was a not in his handwriting… look." She handed him the box. It was no bigger than a grown man's fist.

She set the box down in front of him. He was scared to even look at it, but he worked up the courage to at least read the note that was attached to the top of the box. It read: "Mary, this is for Cedric, give it to him when he is called to work for "The Posse".

"So he expects me to agree to do this… shit!" I don't want to and no one can make me-"

"Open the box," Mary calmly interjected.

He continued, now walking away from her, "-do this crap. This is bull. I don't…" his yelling continued as he ascended the stairs, but from the living room, it was barely a whisper now.

_He's just overwhelmed. When he wakes up tomorrow, I'll bring it up again_. She chuckled out loud. _I think I want to see the contents of that box more than he does._


	3. The Twist 2

The next morning Cedric woke up earlier than usual. He didn't get much sleep during the night and had trouble falling asleep because he had too much on his mind. He went downstairs to snack on whatever he could find. He glanced at the clock in the kitchen. It was 4:17. He made a mental not that his mom wouldn't be up for another three and a half hours. He proceeded to rummage through the fridge, but there wasn't anything he found appetizing. He shut the fridge door and went to the living room.

He stopped mid-stride. The box was still there in the same spot as last night. He sat down in front of it, only staring at it. He read the note a few times over, sitting in silence for ten minutes. It was for him… he may as well open it. It was probably nothing important. His fingers nimbly danced across the cardboard box, searching for a crease to rip open. He found it on the bottom of the box and tore it open carefully. There was another note that fell out. He picked it up and read it before bothering to investigate the contents of the box any further.

_Cedric… I'm sorry. I had to do it. Our family would have been in greater danger if we didn't agree to this. The job you're going to have is most likely as a field agent. That's where they started me at. Once you prove you have more potential than that, they will most likely give you a different job. Hopefully, this Pokémon will make your job a little easier. Do whatever your boss says, even if it-_

The note stopped there. The writing was really sloppy and rushed. Cedric had seen a few documents that had his dad's handwriting on them and this was way too messy. But… who else would look out for him other than his dad? He picked up the Pokéball gingerly. His fist Pokémon… from his dad… the dad that left him…

He placed the Pokéball back in the box and went back upstairs. He didn't want anything to do with that stupid organization. They didn't sound… right to him.

He tried to get his mind off of everything that was happening by playing videogames. He supposed it worked until he was interrupted by another message. Suddenly, his T.V. powered down in the middle of his game. It came back on, but it was no longer his game on the television.

"You need to report for duty at exactly eight a.m." the man who appeared on his television stated, adding, "And, if you don't show up, there _will_ be consequences."

Cedric suddenly had a bunch of questions for this guy. He couldn't manage to utter a word because of the overwhelming rush of emotions. The most dominant of these was anger. Before he could yell at the man to let his dad go, he vanished from the screen. He panted rapidly as rage took over. He wanted to take out his anger on that man, but the only evidence that he had even been there on his television, was the fact that his T.V. didn't work anymore.

Cedric could only collapse to the floor. He fought back tears as he sat on his hands and knees. He quickly composed himself, telling himself that real men don't cry. He looked up at the clock, which was a little blurry because of the tears trying to escape out of his tear ducts. It was 6:45. His mom would be up in soon.

He went downstairs again because the person who had showed up on his T.V. had freaked him out a bit. Plus, his T.V. in his room didn't work anymore. He seated himself on the couch directly in front of the television in the living room. He refrained from turning it on, partly because he thought that the man would show up on this T.V. too if he turned it on. Mostly, it was because he felt as if someone was… watching him. He turned around to see if his suspicions were valid, but there was no one there. The box. It was still there… open… calling to him…-

"Hello Cedric, good morning," his mom called from the stairs.

"Hey mom."

"Shouldn't you be… uh… getting ready?" she asked.

_She knew? No… no, there's no way she knew that there was another message this morning on his T.V._

"Oh, that…" He thought back to what the message said. "Eight o' clock."

"Well, its 7:49 right now… are you ready for this?"

Cedric was done trying to hold it in. After his mom had been completely out of it for half of his life, he finally had someone to be there for him in his time of need. He ran into her arms, almost knocking over a lamp in his clumsiness. He embraced her, almost tackling her to the ground. He was bigger than her now. He wasn't a little kid anymore, yet he still felt like one.

"Mom, I don't want to do this! Didn't dad leave to keep them away from us? Well they're getting me anyways! And- they can't make me… they can't- mom…" He sank down to his knees. The severity of the whole situation finally sank in, and he knew the answers to all of his questions now. He had to do it. They still hadn't taken his mom away and he needed to keep her safe no matter what.

"Mom," he whimpered, looking up into his mother's eyes. "I'll do it… for you…" He got up to his feet, albeit a little shakily. He still didn't like the idea of these people pretty much running his life.

He turned to walk out the door, but his mom called after him, "Wait up, you forgot something." He turned and to his surprise, she was holding the box.

"But mom-"

"No, trust me. If Arnold gave you this, you'll need it."

"Fine." He snatched the box out of her hands and pulled the Pokéball out of it. He tossed it in his bag and looked up at his mom. "Mom…" He paused, "… I love you." _It feels so good to finally be able to say that and have her listen._ "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too, Cedric," she whispered, wiping away a tear. He walked out the door and was blinded by the light.


End file.
